


say my name (it will be held against you)

by horizonyunho



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, Hufflepuff Kim Hongjoong, I Don't Even Know, Journalist Jeong Yunho, Journalist Song Mingi, M/M, Mentions of the Cruciatus curse, Post-Hogwarts, Quidditch Player Choi Jongho, Quidditch Player Choi San, Quidditch Player Jung Wooyoung, Quidditch Player Kang Yeosang, Quidditch Player Kim Hongjoong, Slytherin Park Seonghwa, Tags May Change, slow burn seongjoong????
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21609718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horizonyunho/pseuds/horizonyunho
Summary: In the blink of an eye, Park Seonghwa went from Slytherin Quidditch sweetheart to disgrace. It isn't until one vaguely overworked Jeong Yunho finds an article in a satirical magazine that anyone wonders whether Seonghwa could be innocent.Kim Hongjoong is at the top of the Quidditch world, and yet nothing seems to ever go right. Ever since he graduated, things haven't been the same.
Relationships: Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 10
Kudos: 141





	1. — one

**Author's Note:**

> title from fall out boy's "just one yesterday" 
> 
> honestly ive had this idea in my head since,,, maybe july? anyway shoutout to the friend that unintentionally got me into ateez and later encouraged me to post this [you know who you are]

Seonghwa readjusted the pack of Bludgers, humming along to the background music that Sihyeon had picked. Stocking everything had always been his favorite task as a worker of the quaint Quidditch supply store; no one else from the staff enjoyed it anyway, so it all worked out for him. However, he couldn’t stop thinking of what could have been. Although he excelled in his studies during his time at Hogwarts, Seonghwa had always focused on Quidditch. It had been his dream to play for his local team, the Jinju Strikers, once he had graduated and maybe even play for the South Korean National Quidditch team later on. 

Yet here he was, employed at a no-name Quidditch supply store. Although he enjoyed helping out the kids that frequented the shop — after all, he had once been in their place — the shop was empty more often than not, and the owner was always threatening to cut his pay.

“Knut for your thoughts?” Sihyeon asked after Seonghwa made his way back to the main counter, having finished stocking the shipment of Bludgers they had gotten that morning. On the countertop was the notebook she had charmed into a scoreboard of sorts; whenever there was a league game playing, a live commentary of the match was neatly transcribed onto the page in Sihyeon’s handwriting. Otherwise, it would just display statistics as to how each team was doing in the league. The first time Seonghwa had seen it, he’d begged Sihyeon to let him take it home with him and he’d stayed up late at night in order to read the whole thing — mystified at the intricacy of the charmwork involved with every neatly filled page. Nowadays, he usually looked through it during his breaks, and occasionally asked Sihyeon about the spells involved. But as always, she refused to tell.

Seonghwa flipped to the page detailing statistics for the Jinju Strikers, settling for a simple, “I miss it.”

“Jinju?”

“Quidditch,” Seonghwa said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love playing with you, Yiren, Takuya, and the others, but it’s just… not the same.” He hadn’t ever gotten into detail with any of his coworkers, mostly because he wasn’t truly sure on where he stood with them. But Sihyeon was understanding, and he knew he could trust her when he was ready to tell. “One day,” he added, hoping that it still conveyed what he’d left unsaid.

It did.

;;

Jeong Yunho smiled slightly as he heard what seemed to be Geonhak, the reporter in the cubicle next to his, slamming his head against his desk. Geonhak was an entertainment writer, and although he aspired to be the music critic at their humble newspaper, the head entertainment writer usually had Geonhak writing about dating rumors. However, it wasn’t like Yunho was any better off; after all, he was currently tasked with finding any possible dirt behind the rumored candidate for the captaincy of the South Korean National Quidditch team, Kim Hongjoong. From what Yunho had gathered, Hongjoong had gotten his start at Hogwarts, playing for his House team as most Quidditch stars did, before getting recruited to play for the Ulsan Tigers. After his stint with the Ulsan Tigers, he had practically made his way through nearly all the teams South Korea had to offer, though none of them seemed right to him

On an international level, though, Hongjoong excelled; now that the South Korean team had begun rising in rank internationally, many people had begun to say that Kim Hongjoong was the missing piece for South Korea to finally win the Quidditch World Cup.

There was no dirt to be found about Kim Hongjoong; everyone he had contacted had nothing but praise to say about the Chaser. However, knowing how demanding his boss could be, Yunho was determined to look through every record that remotely mentioned Hongjoong; that way, if his boss accused him of simply being too lazy to look for anything substantial, Yunho could prove that he had dug deep and that it still hadn’t yielded any results.

This was why he was now going through everything Hogwarts had on file for Kim Hongjoong, at least, what they could legally send him. 

“Do you need me to take any copies?”

Yunho looked up from a wrinkled score sheet for a match between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to see Mingi, arms full of parchment rolls. After one too many duels in the break room, the whole office was under magic restriction, which meant that the only way anyone could make copies was through the enchanted copy machine someone had brought in. Mingi was the only one that could ever get the copy machine to work properly, so he had become the unofficial “copy boy”.

“No, it’s fine!” Yunho assured, mentally cursing himself because he knew that he would find something once Mingi was gone. It always happened. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Well, if you need me, you know where my cubicle is,” Mingi teased, readjusting a few scrolls so that the whole pile in his arms wouldn’t fall. Yunho sighed, looking down at his own work pile before looking back at the other.

“Let me help you,” he offered, and before Mingi could object, Yunho took some of the parchment rolls from his arms. “Come on, better get these done before Seoho hyung implodes.”

“Don’t you have any assignments…?” Mingi asked, leading Yunho to the copy room. They laid out the scrolls on the desk inside, sorting them into piles according to which coworker had asked for them. “I can do the copies myself, I’ve done more.”

“Trust me, making copies would be more productive than what I’ve been assigned,” Yunho told him, smoothing out a particular scroll so that he could check who it belonged to, while Mingi turned on the copy machine. 

“And what’s this infamous assignment about?” Mingi questioned, taking the first pile Yunho gave him — Geonhak’s research, mostly poorly constructed tabloid articles — and beginning to make copies. 

“I’m glad you asked.” Yunho took the small card that their boss would print assignments on from his pocket, clearing his throat before beginning to read the assignment. “Find out what makes the nation’s Quidditch treasure, Kim Hongjoong tick. Is there anything dark underneath that bright and steadfast persona?”

Mingi shook his head in amusement. “Jinwoon hyung must really hate you, because there’s no way you’re gonna find anything. I’m calling it right now.”

“You don’t need to call it, I’ve literally made my way back to his Hogwarts records, and the only negative thing I’ve found was that his Potions professor thought he was incompetent at Felix Felicis,” Yunho complained. He handed Mingi another pile. “But if I don’t check everything, Jinwoon hyung’s gonna accuse me of being lazy. Again.”

“Then I’ll help you.”

-

Yunho sighed as he flipped to yet another Quidditch sheet, looking for any infractions remotely related to Kim Hongjoong. On the other end of the couch, Mingi pored over some notes that Yunho had already compiled. When Mingi had originally offered to help Yunho over at Yunho’s apartment, the latter had panicked; Geonhak was the only person in their cramped office that knew that Yunho lived in muggle Seoul, and Yunho didn’t know how Mingi would react to that fact. The two had gone to Hogwarts together, so Yunho knew that Mingi wasn’t prejudiced like many of the other purebloods that he had met, but that didn’t necessarily make him feel better.

Mingi suddenly dropped the newspaper he had been holding, facepalming. “We’re stupid. Merlin, we’re so stupid.”

“How—?” But before Yunho could complete his statement, Mingi grabbed one of the photographs that Yunho had received from the Hogwarts staff he had spoken to. It was a team photograph of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team during Hongjoong’s final year. Hongjoong, who had been the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, was proudly holding the Quidditch Cup above his head, teammates at both sides. From what they had both read, it had been the final year of a strong Quidditch rivalry between Hufflepuff and Slytherin; Gryffindor had been supporting Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had been supporting Slytherin. However, what had caught Mingi’s eye wasn’t the celebration from the Hufflepuff team, but a small huddle of Gryffindor students at the leftmost side of the frame.

Yunho recognized himself immediately — he was in the middle of the small huddle, which had been composed by many of his friends and then spotted Mingi attempting to blend in with the Hufflepuff crowd, his signature Slytherin emerald tie betraying him.

“You were a Slytherin?” Yunho finally asked, averting his glance from the photograph to his coworker in front of him. He felt a familiar, long dormant flutter in his chest as he recognized Mingi as the cute Slytherin boy he’d had a crush years ago — the same one he had always told Geonhak that he would ask out if given the chance.

(God, he could only hope that Mingi wasn’t a good Legilimens; otherwise working at the newspaper office was about to be much more awkward.)

“You didn’t know? Damn, and here I thought that the Sorting Hat telling me to ‘shut up and let me think’ was legendary,” Mingi lamented, though Yunho sensed his teasing tone easily.

“We work in an office full of Beauxbatons graduates, Mingi,” Yunho pointed out, specifically thinking of Geonhak, Seoho, Youngjo, Keonhee, Hwanwoong, and Dongju. He mentally went through the list of non-Hogwarts graduates at their workplace, finally adding, “and Jinwoon hyung studied at Durmstrang,” after a pause. “It’s not like you paid me any attention, either.”

“You were in the running for Head Boy, but it ended up going to a Ravenclaw boy because you had gotten into a fight with someone that called you a blood traitor—which was bullshit, really, because they attacked you first… not to mention, you’re a halfblood,” Mingi said, matter-of-factly, and there was no judgement in his voice at the mention of Yunho’s blood status. He looked over the pile of parchment they still had to go through. “You also wrote little play-by-play type summaries for kids in detention that wanted to know how their House team had done, because you were an aspiring sports journalist. Should I go on?”

Yunho jokingly rolled his eyes. “Let’s get back to Kim Hongjoong, shall we?”


	2. — two

Seonghwa froze as he broke the wrapping around the new shipment of Keeper’s gloves, having decided that he would start with the Keeper’s equipment first. He looked in both directions, not wanting anyone to catch his reaction. Deciding that he was better safe than sorry, Seonghwa grabbed one of the glove packages and made his way behind the counter, where the new employee, Hayato, was reading a novel. Once Seonghwa deemed himself hidden enough from any possible customers — and well, he figured that Hayato was well-trained enough to deal with the demands of whatever customer happened to come in, or at least, Seonghwa hoped he was — he lifted up the box so that he could examine it better.

What caught his eye wasn’t the flashy, eye-catching color scheme or the strategically chosen fonts that boasted claims of Quidditch excellence. It was the CF model that the brand had chosen to advertise the gloves themselves.

Kang Yeosang.

Seonghwa held his breath as he examined the likeness of the Pohang-born Quidditch Keeper; the Kang Yeosang printed on the box was animated, as many illustrations and paintings in the Wizarding world tended to be, and he waved his arms around — seemingly to corroborate the box’s claims that the gloves were incredibly comfortable — a small smile on the Keeper’s face as he fooled around. A similar smile formed on Seonghwa’s face as he watched the little printed Yeosang, a lump forming in his throat.

The whole sequence reminded Seonghwa of simpler times — of playful Gryffindor and Slytherin-based insults, of informal rivalries and big dreams.

When had it all gone so wrong?

“Hyung?” Hayato poked his head around the corner, forcing Seonghwa to regain his composure. He didn’t have anything against Hayato, but after everything, he had adopted a personal policy of not allowing himself to get overly emotional near his colleagues. “One of… of Sihyeon noona’s regulars is here, and well—”

“You don’t know where the products are yet?” Seonghwa asked, somewhat teasingly. Hayato nodded. “It’s fine, I’ll handle it.”

Hayato grinned, making his way back to his seat behind the counter, while Seonghwa scanned the store for a familiar face. From what he understood, Sihyeon had originally played Quidditch during her time at Beauxbatons, where she had met her friends: Yoorim, Yiren, Jiwon, Eunji, and Serim. The six of them had planned on playing professional Quidditch together, and although Sihyeon had withdrawn from their plan, the others had begun making a name for themselves. Seonghwa wasn’t personally acquainted with any of them; however, he had learned what each one’s preferred product was — that way, he could retrieve it from the back if needed.

He found Serim, who played as a Beater, examining the same multi-pack of Quidditch balls that Hayato had begrudgingly unpacked the previous day.

“Do you need anything?”

Serim shook her head, shoving the product back to its appropriate display, having moved it so that she could read it better. “No, just looking around until my break is over. Our league semifinals are coming up and our coach has been driving us into the ground for the past week.” She shrugged. “Our coach thinks she has the perfect team this year, so she’s been a bit… fanatical.”

“I hope you do well,” Seonghwa said, ignoring the familiar ache in his heart as he spotted a few of Serim’s teammates making their way in. Despite the exhaustion in their faces, Seonghwa spotted saw their determination and drive. He finally settled on a steady, “Make us proud, okay?” 

“Okay,” Serim promised, though she soon had to leave in order to make it back to the Quidditch pitch in time for her practice. Once she and her teammates had left the building, Seonghwa heard Hayato let out a breath he had been holding in.

“I don’t know how you and Sihyeon noona are so calm around them, hyung,” Hayato finally told him. “I… I grew up at Hogwarts seeing them in the newspapers whenever their teams won, and you’re here…” Hayato struggled to find the words to express himself, and it dawned on Seonghwa that Hayato didn’t know about his scandal.

“Wait, you’ve never heard my name, like in the news?”

“No,” Hayato replied, “should I?”

“I’ll… I’ll just tell you during our break, okay?” Seonghwa offered.

It was both a blessing and a curse when Hayato was picked up from his shift early, not too long from when their talk would have been. Hayato’s mom apologized to Seonghwa, who was the only employee present at the time, and explained that Hayato’s boyfriend had fallen ill. Doing the best with a mix of Japanese that he had picked up from Takuya and Hayato, Seonghwa assured her that it was no problem. As soon as she was gone, though, Hayato had made him promise that he would tell him his story as soon as the former could come back.

Seonghwa had agreed, fully intending on following up on what he had promised to his coworker. The once-comforting quiet that was offered by the lack of customers was now stifling — making him wonder what Hayato would think once he knew the truth. Most of the store’s clientele was composed of Hogwarts-aged students, which meant that their period of greatest activity tended to be before the school year, leaving the rest of the year relatively barren. Sihyeon was busy that day, and the others weren’t scheduled to work until next week. Following that train of thought, Seonghwa guessed that he could technically justify closing the store early and going home; Takuya and Seyoung did it all the time.

However, every time Seonghwa grabbed his belongings in an effort to begin closing procedures, guilt gnawed at him slightly as he thought of his boss’s reaction. Instead, he settled for rearranging any merchandise that might’ve been disturbed or misplaced by the customers that had come in earlier. He took his time reading the packaging in which the different products came; it was something he tended to skip whenever he was stocking the shelves, especially after Seyoung had declared an unofficial competition amongst the workers for who could stock the fastest. 

(Sihyeon was actually the reigning champion, but Seonghwa prided himself on being a close second.)

When no one came after that, Seonghwa decided to just close the shop and go home. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but there was always a certain hope that awoke in his chest whenever any of Sihyeon’s friends and their respective teammates came along — that one of them would come by and say hello — but Seonghwa had come to accept that they were following their dreams, and that they likely would never come back for him. If he’d kept the store open, hoping for someone to come by, he’d never go home.

;;

“And here’s the article you asked me to write,” Yunho announced, placing the final version of their article on Jinwoon’s desk. He kept his hands in his pockets, mimicking Mingi’s stance in an effort to feign confidence. Jinwoon had always scared him, and getting his work examined was among the most nerve-wracking part of his job. Jinwoon rarely liked his work — a fact that had left Mingi indignant, who argued that Yunho could rival many of the Wizarding world’s greatest writers to anyone that insulted Yunho — and Yunho hoped that Jinwoon wouldn’t send the article back to be rewritten.

But Jinwoon turned his focus to Mingi. “And why are you here?”

“I co-wrote the article in your hands,” Mingi replied. He crossed his arms. “You told me that I should start off by helping the others before I get my own article pitch, correct? So that’s what I did.”

“Well, it’s not what I wanted,” Jinwoon began, and Yunho bit back a laugh at Mingi’s initial outrage. Comments like these were common for Jinwoon, and Yunho had even managed to decipher whether Jinwoon’s comments were positive or negative; this was actually tame for Jinwoon. “But there actually aren’t many well-researched sources compiling information on Kim Hongjoong, so I guess it’s fine. You’ll get your new assignments tomorrow.”

“Assignments?” Mingi asked.

“Yes, Song, I’ve decided to let you begin writing your own articles. You can thank Jeong for that,” Jinwoon said.

“Merlin, thank you,” Mingi bowed down to Jinwoon, and once he’d done so, Yunho began directing him to the door, noticing that a small line had developed while they were in Jinwoon’s office. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank—”

Mingi continued to thank Jinwoon for the opportunity even as Yunho directed him back to his cubicle, getting the attention of the others, who began congratulating him. However, the commotion calmed down fairly quickly; after all, many of their coworkers were still working on their assigned articles. Just as Yunho turned to leave, Mingi added, “Seriously, thank you so much, Yunho. I’ve… I’ve been working at this company for years, hoping that Jinwoon hyung would take me seriously enough to assign me a task other than making copies, and he finally gave me that opportunity today.”

“You’re the one that saved the article,” Yunho admitted. “You were the one that told me to change up the article to be informational; otherwise, I think I would have just been stuck.”

“Still, I’m taking you out when we get paid, and you’re not allowed to refuse.”

The words rang in Yunho’s ears as he made his way back to his own cubicle, where he found Geonhak and his friends looking up at him expectantly. For once, Yunho was glad he had cast an Expansion Charm, along with a strong Muffliato, on his cubicle before Jinwoon had imposed the restriction on magic during work hours.

“So the cute copy boy that a good third of the office has a crush on is taking you out,” Geonhak prompted when Yunho pretended not to see him, working on some notes for a possible article on the use of potions in the Quidditch industry. “Ah, Hogwarts love… Gryffindor love.”

“He’s just glad that he finally got Jinwoon hyung’s permission to start writing his own articles. You know how Jinwoon hyung’s an ass when it comes to that kind of thing.” Yunho began typing up a rough outline on the typewriter that he’d found at a muggle thrift store; given the fact that magic impeded him from using a laptop, he figured that the typewriter would be a decent alternative. It was. Yunho added something about Felix Felicis, hoping to add onto it later on. “Oh, and he’s not— he wasn’t a Gryffindor. He was actually Sorted into Slytherin.”

“Song Mingi, a Slytherin? Are you sure?” Seoho asked, shooting glances in the general direction of Mingi’s cubicle.

“Yeah, the Sorting Hat actually yelled at him while he was being Sorted,” Yunho said, calling over his owl, a well-groomed Barn Owl named Soren, giving him a small note —  
Do you want to write another sports article with me or are you tired of Quidditch? — and directing him to deliver it to Mingi. “He wasn’t a hatstall or anything, he just wouldn’t let the Sorting Hat get a single word in. Definitely a Slytherin, apparently.”

“And so what are you going to do, now that you’ve found out that your school crush and your workplace semi-crush are the same person?” Hwanwoong inquired, just as Soren returned with Mingi’s reply.

Sure, I’m never too tired for Quidditch. Or for you.

“I’ll…” Yunho muttered, hoping that his ears reddening wouldn’t catch the attention of the others. “I’ll get back to you on that.”


	3. — three

Despite it being Seonghwa’s day off, he found Hayato at his apartment doorstep the next day.

“I wanted to hear your story,” Hayato explained, and Seonghwa decided to let him in against his better judgement. After all. Hayato was fairly young, and Seonghwa didn’t want to possibly get in trouble. Hayato was already seventeen, so his Apparition to Seonghwa’s apartment wouldn’t fall under laws against underage usage of magic; however, much of Hayato’s family held high positions within the Ministry of Magic, and Seonghwa didn’t want to take his chances if any of those relatives happened to find out about him speaking to Hayato. “I’ll admit, I have heard some things, but I wanted to hear the whole story from you. As for my family, well, they think I’m currently with Joel, who agreed to cover for me.”

“In that case, I suppose you have this all covered,” Seonghwa joked, as Hayato took off his shoes, and he led the younger to the living room so that they could sit down. He took a brief moment to gather his thoughts, then added, “I guess… I think I’ll just give you an overview of what happened, and then I’ll answer any specific questions you may have. Is that okay?”

Hayato looked at him expectantly. “Alright.”

“I was muggleborn, or at least, that’s what my whole family thinks, though I personally believe one of my relatives is magic. Either way, it was confirmed that I was going to Hogwarts about a year before my letter came, so one of my great aunts gave me an old Cleansweep and a Snitch that had belonged to her son.” Seonghwa paused to take a breath and to recollect his thoughts. He hadn’t really thought about it in a while. “So I get there, get Sorted into Slytherin, and well, you know, students aren’t really allowed to join their House team until their third year. But I managed to persuade a few older Slytherins to let me ride their Nimbuses. Third year, I make the team as Seeker; seventh year, we lose our winning streak to our biggest rival — Hufflepuff.”

“Isn’t Slytherin’s biggest rival supposed to be Gryffindor?” Hayato asked, amused.

“Well, I guess? Except House Quidditch was weird that year, because Ravenclaw had insisted on building their team exclusively with sixth years when I was in sixth year, which worked well for them — until seventh year came and their whole team had graduated out. So Ravenclaw didn’t last. Then a lot of my friends came from Gryffindor, so our teams were on talking terms, so I think Hufflepuff just became our enemy team by default.” Seonghwa laughed slightly as memories of sneaking away to Hogsmeade to get snacks for Yeosang while he should’ve been in O.W.L-level Ancient Runes came to mind. “Either way, I made it to professional Quidditch; I got Felix Felicis planted on me, and that’s where it all ended. I couldn’t even really get a job after that, not many people wanted to hire someone rumored to be addicted to Felix Felicis. No one… no one wanted to hear me, until I joined the shop.”

“Oh, hyung.” Before Seonghwa could react, Hayato got closer to him, wrapping his arms around the elder in a tight hug. “This doesn’t change anything, okay? You’re still the same Hwa hyung that lets me get away with reading my books in Japanese even though some of the others get on my case for not being better at Korean… I’m honored, really, that you chose to trust me.”

“Maybe I’ll take you out to buy that candy you like, for being such a nice kid,” Seonghwa suggested jokingly, but when Hayato’s eyes lit up at the chance to buy the candies his mom forbid him from eating, Seonghwa decided to go ahead with it. “Let me get my wand, and then we’ll take the Floo.”

“But I wanted to Apparate!” Hayato replied.

“Well, if you Apparate again, then that’s definitely going to give you away to your mother,” Seonghwa countered, going to his bedroom in order to retrieve his wand, knowing that Hayato wouldn’t know enough about Apparition to know he was lying. Once he returned, he offered the Floo Powder to Hayato, “Do you want those limited edition Chocolate Frogs, or do you want your mom to come after us?”

Hayato sighed, taking a fistful of Floo Powder. “Chocolate Frogs.”

-

A quick trip to the candy shop near the Quidditch supply store they worked at turned into a plaza-wide shopping trip after Hayato found out that his favorite author was holding a signing at the local bookstore later that day. This left them with about two hours to kill, and by some miracle, Hayato assured Seonghwa that the issue of his mother was solved. Whether or not that was true, Seonghwa didn’t know, but he’d worked with Hayato long enough to know that Hayato had a knack for getting himself out of trouble — even when he shouldn’t have been able to do so.

Either way, Seonghwa had decided to use the opportunity to buy himself a new set of dress robes, while Hayato had opted to buy an assortment of random cheap trinkets for Transfiguration and Charms experimentation. At one of the coffee shops, they sat near a couple of wizards wearing identical work uniform robes — “damn, they cast Muffliato,” Hayato whispered, almost apologetically when the two recognized the familiar buzz that came with the charm — though what caught Seonghwa’s eye was the fact that one of them was using a typewriter to take notes.

When they finally got to the bookstore, an hour before the event itself, Seonghwa internally winced as he spotted the line.

“You can go walk around, hyung,” Hayato said, clearly having taken note of Seonghwa;s expression.

“Are you sure?”

Hayato playfully rolled his eyes. “Hyung, even Joel, my own boyfriend, hates standing in lines like this, I assure you it’s fine. Just go.” 

;;

Yeosang wondered why he even bothered trying to sneak away to the plaza where Wooyoung’s favorite bookstore was located, when his best friend seemingly had a sixth sense dedicated exclusively to that bookstore. San liked to joke that Wooyoung probably had a crush on the attendant, but Yeosang knew that wasn’t the reason. Yeosang, out of everyone, would have been the first to know if that was the case; he was sure of it.

If anything, Yeosang was sure that Wooyoung’s fixation with the bookstore had more to do with his tendency of giving himself challenges and goals to complete. Last year, his goal had been to work towards setting a Quidditch-related world record; this year, he had set out to read more muggle literature. 

(That would definitely explain why Wooyoung had sent him a Patronus message, asking him to check whether the bookstore’s Muggle World Literature section included Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote.)

Yeosang managed to get all of the items that the other players had requested — the amount of candy and junk food that a whole Quidditch team could eat was no longer surprising to him, especially around league games — but he decided to wander around as he waited for one of the stores that sold some of the snacks that their Seeker, Parker, had asked for, to open. He walked by several stores, before stopping in front of a specific shop.

Im and Co.’s Quality Quidditch Supplies, the faded sign above him read. 

The Keeper stepped back as he examined the store, memories flooding back. He remembered looking through the window whenever his father brought him to this specific plaza, taking in the splendor of whatever new brooms the store had to offer that year and daydreaming about becoming a professional Quidditch player. He would also bring some of his friends, and together they would joke about how they would promote the same products and play for the same teams. Years later, their dream had come true.

No — his dream had come true, so had Wooyoung’s dream, Jongho’s dream, San’s dream, and Hongjoong’s dream.

But Seonghwa had never gotten the same chance, his wings cut before he could even try to take flight. Yeosang bit his lip as he looked at the store once again. Seonghwa had been the one that had made them consider the idea that their dreams could be more than that — that if they worked hard enough, they would be able to make a name for themselves in the competitive atmosphere of the Quidditch world. Hell, Seonghwa had been there for him when Yeosang had decided, in the middle of his fifth year, that he wanted to play as Keeper, rather than as a Chaser. Seonghwa had helped him practice deep into the night — later than Seonghwa should have stayed up, given the fact that he had been taking his N.E.W.Ts and needed the time to study and rest — to make sure that Yeosang’s skills as a Keeper were up to par so that he could get recruited. 

But Yeosang hadn’t helped Seonghwa, and that was a regret he’d kept to himself in the years after Seonghwa had left. He’d been the only one at the office when Seonghwa had been taken into the meeting with the team executives — the only one that knew Seonghwa hadn’t left voluntarily, as many sources liked to report. Seonghwa hadn’t even gotten the chance to take his things; his belongings had been Vanished after he had been escorted out. Yeosang sighed, knowing that there wasn’t much he could do — not without Seonghwa himself, at least, because he knew that no one would believe him like this.

Finally, Yeosang made his way towards the bookstore to retrieve Wooyoung’s copy of Don Quixote. Whether Wooyoung would read the novel or not, Yeosang still wanted to get it; however, upon seeing how crowded the store was, Yeosang Apparated home, dropping off the junk food he’d already gotten, then Apparated back to the bookstore. He already knew his way around the bookstore thanks to Wooyoung, which made his search a lot easier. Once he had the book in his hand, paying was fairly easy; after all, most of the crowd was only there for a book signing, but Yeosang still made sure to be careful as he made his way back towards the exit.

“Shit, sorry—” Yeosang looked at the person he’d accidentally walked into while trying to avoid some kids that had run by, immediately recognizing the person. “Hyung, wait!”

Yeosang ran after him, but as soon as he’d managed to make his way to the entrance, Seonghwa was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update, exams are this week so ive been stressed
> 
> poll for next chapter: https://linkto.run/p/P2NXQESW
> 
> UPDATE: I WILL STOP COUNTING VOTES ON WEDNESDAY, DEC 18, SO ANY VOTES AFTER THAT WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE FINAL UPDATE

“This article is gonna be the end of me,” Yunho complained, slamming his head against Mingi’s coffee table. “Now I know what it feels like to be Geonhak hyung.”

Mingi laughed, looking down at Yunho from his seat on the couch. He’d had to convince Yunho into coming over to his apartment to work on the Quidditch article, but once Yunho had given in, he seemed right at home. As much as he enjoyed teasing Yunho that whole afternoon, Mingi understood Yunho’s stress. Jinwoon had approved of their article idea about potions in Quidditch, but he’d added several requirements so that it would meet his usual standard; unfortunately, Jinwoon was infamous for his unreasonable requirements — and had thus become the bane of Mingi’s existence from the extent of Yunho’s stress alone.

“You got this,” Mingi supplied, resisting the urge to ruffle Yunho’s hair while the latter still had his head down on the table, but he continued, “We got this, okay? And one day, the whole Wizarding world will acknowledge Jeong Yunho as the best sports journalist the world has to offer.”

“You Slytherins are always so full of bullshit.” Yunho finally lifted his head, grabbing a new article from the stack that he and Mingi had called the “treasure pile” — all of the articles published within the last few years that mentioned potions and Quidditch in any remotely related manner, which could possibly be used as sources for their own article. Yunho took a moment to read through the article in order to make sure it was an actual article — he didn’t even want to think about the amount of so-called articles he’d picked up, only to realize that the article was some sort of explicit advertisement geared towards Quidditch players — before grabbing Mingi’s arm and shaking him, shoving the article into Mingi’s hands as soon as the younger turned in his direction. “Look!”

THE DARK SIDE OF HOGWARTS QUIDDITCH  
Jung Kyunghwan | XX/XX/20XX

Seoul, South Korea — In recent years, there has been a sudden surge in young Quidditch prodigies hailing from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, overtaking Durmstrang’s historic hold on the Quidditch world. Many of these bright witches and wizards — names such as Heo Yoorim, Hwang Yeji, Choi Jongho, and Han Jisung often come into conversation — have gone on to make names for themselves in the competitive atmosphere of professional Quidditch.

However, much of the talk surrounding Hogwarts’s newfound wave of Quidditch talent ignores the reality of the situation: students that do not fill the designated roles set out by major Quidditch teams are left out in the dust. One notable example is Hogwarts alum Park Seonghwa — a known Parselmouth — who was unilaterally banned for life from playing professional Quidditch after being found with Felix Felicis, despite the lack of proof that the Felix Felicis in question was related to Park in any way…

“Hyung…” Mingi didn’t bother reading the rest of the article, deliberately ignoring the subsection of the article where the author implied that Kim Hongjoong practiced Dark rituals every night in order to preserve his Quidditch fame. Mingi hadn’t grown up following Quidditch like Yunho had, but even he remembered the public disasters that often unfolded whenever a known Quidditch player was found using any potion that could be used to enhance their performance on the pitch; in the midst of the scandals, many of the players would receive some sort of trial — a gesture afforded only to those that seemed even remotely sorrowful — and some of them were even allowed to continue their careers. Now that he’d thought about it, Seonghwa had never received such attention from the media. “You think— You think that this article is onto something?”

“All mentions of Kim Hongjoong and the novel-long list of Dark rituals that he supposedly engages in to keep his fame aside? Yes.” Yunho sighed mournfully at the draft that he’d already started. “I don’t want to waste the article I've already written, but… but...”

“But?” Mingi prompted.

“I don’t want to let this go,” Yunho explained. He sat up straighter, messing around with the sleeves of his jacket. “I… I feel like the most selfish person in the world for even thinking this, but… if this — whatever this theory we’re discussing right now is — is true, it could be our ticket out of Jinwoon hyung’s stupid newspaper and his stupid gossip assignments.”

“It kinda does sound selfish, but that’s not necessarily bad — sometimes you just have to be selfish to get what you want,” Mingi shrugged, calmly folding up the article they’d just read as if it were a weather report. “Personally, I think we should pursue this… idea we have. The way I see it, at least, is that at best, we uncover the truth and help an innocent man; at worst, well, we join the faction of sports writers that just gather and theorize about what Kim Hongjoong’s monthly Dark ritual will be.” Watching Yunho’s excitement, Mingi added, “Now that I think about it, I have a friend on the team that might talk… I’ll have to send him an owl, though.”

“Song Mingi, have I ever mentioned how much I appreciate you? Because I do.” He stood up, stretching his legs for the first time in what had seemed like hours working away at the same article. “I promised my neighbor, Jieun, that I would periodically pop in and check on her cats while she’s away at a school-related competition; I’ll be back, in like, less than an hour.”

“Have fun,” Mingi teased, and Yunho did his best to retort before Apparating, but didn’t get many words in. Once the latter was gone, Mingi set off in search of some spare parchment in order to send an owl to his Quidditch friend — not only was this new article idea meaningful to Yunho, it also mattered greatly to Mingi; however, he soon came to the realization that he and Yunho had spent all the extra parchment Mingi usually kept for emergencies, and he decided to quickly Apparate to the shop to pick up some parchment before Yunho returned from his neighbor’s house.  
;;

“Where are you going?” Hongjoong asked, watching as Yeosang struggled to make his hair look presentable. One of the cons of having the whole South Korean Quidditch team live on the same floor was that they could never truly escape each other — being forced to see each other at all times of the day, several times a week — and many of their personalities clashed. “It’s our free day today, and I was — I had been hoping that we could have a team bonding activity.”

“I offered to help my journalist friend with his new article.” Not a lie. Yeosang reached for his wand, pointing the tip of it at his hair and muttering spells under his breath until he was satisfied with the state of his hair. “He wanted the insider view of a Quidditch player, and who was I to say no?” Another truth.

“Ah,” Hongjoong said, fiddling with the sleeves of his robes. Yeosang immediately recognized the black robes with golden accents that Hongjoong wore. Hongjoong had purchased them when he’d first started flirting with Seonghwa; Yeosang was sure that he hadn’t seen those robes in years. He hadn’t even known that Honghoong had kept those robes for so long. “That makes sense, actually. Is it, like, an interview?”

“Something like that? I’m not sure, I forgot to ask.” Yeosang ignored the clump of bitterness that formed in his throat as he connected the dots; Hongjoong was going on a date with Parker, the ever-annoying Seeker that had joined the team after Seonghwa had left the position vacant, the person responsible for the stiffness of his hair, and most importantly, the bane of Yeosang’s existence. All afternoon, Parker had been loudly showing off the fact that Hongjoong had finally accepted his offer of going on a date — and Yeosang had thought that he was bluffing, because surely Hongjoong would never acknowledge Parker.

But, apparently, he had.

However, his mood soon changed as he Apparated to Mingi’s home, where the journalist had asked him to meet up. Yeosang materialized right outside the apartment door and quickly gave himself a quick glance over to check for any damage that could have come from Apparating. Yeosang wasn’t bad at Apparating in any sense of the word, but he had taken too long to get his official license to Apparate and he figured he could never be too careful. He stepped forward, about to knock, but the door had already opened.

“Wait, Yeosang?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter but I wanted to post something more before the new year :)

Hongjoong sighed as the Quidditch team manager handed him a muggle newspaper, which detailed the disappearance of two males at a recent carnival. According to the article, the two had been spotted in line for the carnival’s signature ferris wheel, and when the ferris wheel had malfunctioned, the two were said to have been stranded in the uppermost gondola for an hour; .however, when staff were sent to rescue them, the two were gone. 

While the story itself seemed random, Hongjoong’s heart sank as he turned to look at the photographs that accompanied the article; although the photographs were printed in black or white, he was able to recognize himself immediately from the oversized hoodie and black jeans that Parker had given him to change into, pointing out that his robes were sure to attract unwanted attention in the muggle world. Hongjoong had remembered that night clearly, because it had arguably been the best date Hongjoong had been on in a while — particularly because Parker had taken him to his favorite butterbeer place, a detail that Hongjoong had never shared with any of the players on the team, and because he’d taken Hongjoong on a carnival date, something that had been on Hongjoong’s bucket list for a while. 

Hongjoong remembered the ferris wheel incident, too — recalling how he had been the one to suggest Apparating back to his apartment after it had gotten late. At the time, Apparating had seemed like the perfect solution. Hongjoong would have never suggested it otherwise. He could only hope that the details of this incident wouldn’t reach the Wizarding media, because only Merlin knew how tabloid writers would react once the news hit their ears. 

“I’ll talk to him,” Hongjoong promised, though he wasn’t completely sure if he would be able to. Parker had recently transferred to a different team mid-league, and their schedules wouldn’t align for them to meet until the national team was due to play. “I’ll get this resolved.”

Once he left the office, Hongjoong decided to take the time before practice to think about how he would proceed with Parker. 

He ended up catching up with one of the other players, Yuchan, after the latter mentioned wanting to go to a specific book shop. Admittedly, he hadn’t ever spent that much time around Yuchan for various reasons, but Yuchan was still happy to have him tag along.

“I’ve been considering the idea of switching over to be a Beater,” Yuchan told him, sipping on the iced tea he had purchased from a shop on the way to the bookstore, where he opened the door for Hongjoong. “So like, you know how our system makes it so that we’re on different ‘tiers’? You’re the captain of the first tier team, and then Jun hyung’s the captain for us — the second tier; well, we’ve been thinking of restructuring our team because Junyoung got demoted to third tier, so we need a second Beater and that’s where I come in. I was thinking of switching over to Beater and letting Sehyoon hyung be the Seeker — and then maybe we could recruit someone to fill in the gap or promote someone.”

“That’s similar to what we did with Yeosang back in Hogwarts, so it might be a bit different,” Hongjoong responded, wincing inwardly as he suddenly remembered that Yuchan hadn’t attended Hogwarts, so he wouldn’t have known that Yeosang had switched to being a Keeper during their final year. Still, he added, “I think Yeosang mentioned some books that he red around that time, maybe that could help.”

The two immediately made their way towards the Quidditch section of the bookstore. It was a drowsy Tuesday morning, which allowed for them to search around the wide variety of Quidditch books — it seemed that the store had categorized anything remotely mentioning Quidditch or implying a connection to it as a Quidditch book, which made their search harder — but they managed to compile a decent amount of books for Yuchan to learn from, even if most of them were visibly geared at eleven year olds that were just getting used to playing Quidditch. 

Seeing as there was a Quidditch supply store nearby, Hongjoong encouraged Yuchan to get a few things in order to get adjusted to being a Beater — a Beater’s bat and some Bludgers seemed to be the obvious choice, but if Yuchan was anything like Hongjoong’s team members, Hongjoong knew they’d end up with much more of a haul by the time that they’d left the store.

A quiet bell rang as they entered the store, presumably to alert the workers to the presence of potential customers. Upon re-reading the faded sign — Im and Co.’s Quality Quidditch Supplies — Hongjoong recognized the store as Yeosang’s favorite place to get backup items. He hadn’t been to the store, or at least, not since his years at Hogwarts — though Yeosang always made a point of announcing that he was “going to pick up some things up at Im’s, does anyone need anything?” Yuchan, however, seemed to have a better understanding of where certain items were located. By the time Hongjoong had found the latter, Yuchan had already filled one of the bags that the store provided with an assortment of Bludgers and a bat that Junyoung had sworn by. 

Yuchan pulled him to an aisle farther from the check out desk, glancing back before looking at Hongjoong again. “Okay, maybe it’s just because I graduated from Beauxbatons and therefore I might be reading too much into this, but doesn’t the guy at the check-out corner look… off? I mean, you could argue that it could just be a new hire, but I’m here pretty regularly since Donghun hyung drags me here more often than not, and I’ve never seen him.”

Hongjoong followed Yuchan’s gaze, spotting the fidgety worker that had caught Yuchan’s eye. There wasn’t anything specifically that stood out, but there was definitely something off about the worker; something about the worker’s face looked off.

“It’s like — a glamor?” Hongjoong guessed. 

“Well, whatever it is, it looks like it’s starting to fade away,” Yuchan added, but he chose not to press the situation further. “Didn’t you say that you needed a few things because, and I quote, these kids don’t know how to control themselves?”  
“Right.”

;;

Seonghwa repeatedly shot glances at the clock on his desk, growing more and more impatient with each second that passed without Juwon coming. He could feel the Polyjuice Potion he had taken earlier that day begin to act up — an indication that his time was nearly over and that his appearance would revert to his own soon. He hadn’t brought any more because it would have definitely roused his boss’s suspicion, but also because he had trusted Juwon to arrive at the time Juwon had set.

Their boss would definitely have their heads on a stick — Juwon, for skipping his shift, and Seonghwa, for helping him — however, Seonghwa couldn’t bring himself to care about his boss at that moment.

The shop was protected so that people wouldn’t be able to break in by Apparating, so that was out of the question. However, if he made his escape now, Seonghwa would surely be able to reach the fireplace and use the Floo—

“Excuse me?”

“Yes? Sorry I wasn’t paying attention,” he managed to squeeze out, maintaining what Sihyeon and the others called his benevolent customer service face. If Juwon wasn’t coming, then Seonghwa figured that he would need to face this situation by himself — and he was determined to not give Kim Hongjoong the chance to catch him off-guard. The Polyjuice Potion faded, but Seonghwa continued, “How may I help you?”


	6. Chapter 6

Seonghwa had imagined the reunion several times; he’d woken up at night screaming after a long nightmare more than he would ever care to admit. He had always pictured Hongjoong to be furious — to begin blaming him for everything, as everyone else had done throughout the years. However, when Seonghwa met Hongjoong’s gaze, there was no malice in the latter’s eyes.

Then again, Seonghwa was sure that there was no such thing as malice when it came to Kim Hongjoong.

“I—”

“I can get someone else to ring you up, if you’d like,” Seonghwa immediately offered, despite the fact that Hayato was out and his next choice would be to send an urgent owl to Sihyeon or Takuya and hope that one of them would answer. He ignored that Yuchan stood behind Hongjoong, zeroing in on Hongjoong and looking for any hints as to what the latter felt. When he had been on the team, Seonghwa had always prided himself on being the person that could read Hongjoong the best; it had been one of the reasons why they had worked so well together on the field, and it also meant that he was the one that could gauge whenever Hongjoong was worried about them.

However, that had been back then. Now, Seonghwa would say they were practically strangers.

“That’s not necessary,” Hongjoong finally said. He placed his items on the check-out counter and took out the exact amount in Sickles and Galleons necessary, placing them directly in Seonghwa’s hand. “It was nice to see you.”

“Nice to see you, too.” He watched as Hongjoong took Yuchan’s hand and led him away, presumably to practice. Once the store was completely empty again, Seonghwa let himself drop to his knees, sighing. Junwoo arrived shortly after — and rather than admonish him, since the idea of using Polyjuice Potion had been his, Seonghwa transferred check-out responsibilities to Junwoo so that he could go back to the office. An Arctic fox Patronus stood on the chair, as if waiting for him, and when it opened its mouth, Hongjoong’s voice came out. 

“Meet me at my apartment at eight; only if you want to, at least. I just want to catch up.”

Seonghwa spent the rest of his shift sorting through several forms and paperwork that needed managerial attention, as well as skimming through advertisements for products that were being pitched to the store. Many of them seemed like knock-offs — ones that were more likely to curse the user irreversibly, rather than perform their designated use. Seonghwa had enough experience with that type of products; he’d spent much of his time at Hogwarts covered in Quidditch-related bruises from using sketchy products he’d ordered out of curiosity.

It wasn’t until he’d talked things through with Hayato and Sihyeon that Seonghwa had finally made his decision. He remembered seeing Yeosang at the bookstore that day, and Seonghwa hoped that he would at least be able to rekindle friendships with the others, even if things went badly with Hongjoong. 

“I’m so sorry,” Seonghwa told his owl, Aurora, sending her on yet another errand when she had just settled down. “Just take this last one to Hongjoong, okay? And then you can peck at me all you want once you come back.”

Seemingly satisfied with Seonghwa’s promise, Aurora set off to deliver Seonghwa’s last letter.

;;

Hongjoong’s apartment looked exactly like Seonghwa had pictured it.

Being from different Houses — and seeing as Seonghwa had never sought out trouble, like a lot of the other Slytherins he had known — he had never stepped foot inside of Hongjoong’s dorm, though he knew how Hongjoong had decorated his section, from the time San used a Pensieve to prove to them that he had broken into the Hufflepuff Common Room before. Hongjoong’s apartment was relatively neater than the dorm had been, which was to be expected since he had been sharing it with other people. He had a small shelf in his living room, dedicated to the several Quidditch awards he had gotten in recent years, but even that shelf wasn’t safe from the clutter all around.

“There’s a method to my madness,” Hongjoong told him, in reference to the clutter, “you don’t see it, but a lot of this exactly where I need it.” He led Seonghwa to the couch, which had yet to be overtaken by the items scattered around. “Merlin, I’m such a bad host. Do you want anything? I can’t guarantee that I’ll have it, but Yeosang probably won’t mind lending it.”

“Yeosang lives nearby?”

“The whole team lives in this building.” Hongjoong pointed up at the ceiling. “Jongho lives up there, Yeosang lives a few doors down this hallway — you get the point.”

“I thought he would have moved out,” Seonghwa admitted. 

“I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t. He gets along with everyone except for… for Parker,” Hongjoong immediately looked down, focusing on the texture of the couch. “They jinx each other constantly — that kind of thing. We had to ban wands out on the pitch because they got into an argument and Yeosang jinxed Parker’s eyebrows so that they’d be behind Parker’s ears.”

“Parker, that’s Haein, right? I mean, that’s his English name,” Seonghwa paused. He vaguely remembered the younger, who’d always spent his time following Hongjoong around. He’d also had an older brother named Hyungsik, who had been one of the boys that Seonghwa had shared a dorm with back at Hogwarts. “He had a crush on you.”

“I know,” Hongjoong said softly, “we’re taking things slowly, and he’s… he’s good to me.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah…” Hongjoong playfully rolled his eyes at the thought of Parker. “And you? Wait, are you dating that cute kid from the store?”

He smacked Hongjoong with the nearest cushion, wrinkling his nose as he realized Hongjoong was talking about Hayato. “Joong, he just graduated Hogwarts like a year ago!”

“People change,” Hongjoong shrugged, laughing, “I don’t know, maybe you’re into being called hyung like that—”

“Hongjoong!”

He lunged at Hongjoong, his old Quidditch reflexes kicking in. Hongjoong responded by grabbing one of the smaller cushions in order to fend off Seonghwa’s attack. Their game was short — only lasting until a loud thump interrupted them.

“That’s Jongho,” Hongjoong supplied, backing away from Seonghwa as soon as the thumping stopped. “He does that, though it’s usually when he’s trying to get Mingi to stop tampering with these Bludgers that he found so that he can sleep.”

After that, there wasn’t much of a specific theme to their talk; both of them joked around about whatever came to their minds — Seonghwa shared a few of the customer stories he tended to use in conversation whenever asked about his job, while Hongjoong mentioned anecdotes about the CFs for the products that Seonghwa was in charge of selling. It brought memories of the times Seonghwa and Hongjoong would sneak off to the Room of Requirement; they’d usually take as many snacks from the kitchens as they could take, pulling near allnighters as they stayed up to talk. That had been when they had found out about their shared dream.

Seonghwa sighed, looking away. “Did you ever think of me after what happened?”

There were other things Seonghwa had wanted to say — other questions that had come up in his mind through the years whenever he pictured their prospective reunion. The questions had frequently kept him up late at night, remaining with him around in the years that followed. For a while, it had just been easier to think that Hongjoong and the other members of their friend group hated him; it seemingly offered a simple explanation for their lack of communication after all the months, that turned to years, with no response. He hadn’t truly allowed himself to hope for a reunion, even when Sihyeon’s old school friends came around to visit and joke around — but that changed the day he had spotted Yeosang while out with Hayato.

“To be honest, I kind of hated you at first,” Hongjoong admitted. “Remember how I told you that when I was younger, my family lived in a neighborhood where we were treated worse than the other families, due to the fact that we weren’t purebloods?”

“Yeah,” Seonghwa said. 

“There was a time in my life where I thought the worst of all Slytherins because of that,” Hongjoong continued. “It— It wasn’t my parents’ doing, though. Anyway, I let go of those feelings when I got to Hogwarts, because I met you and Jongho. When the news broke out, I kind of tagged you as another slimy, shit-headed Slytherin.”

“What about after?”

“Well, after that happened, I knew that I had to keep a steady mind for the sake of the others,” Hongjoong said. “Though trust me, there was a time where I was so mad I would have Crucio-ed you to Azkaban and back if I was asked to. But that whole idea of being the calm, receptive leader kind of backfired, considering—”

“—you guys lost against Japan and set a record with your greatest loss,” Seonghwa supplied, wincing both at the memory and at the glare he’d received from Hongjoong for mentioning the game.

“Yeah, considering that. But I don’t hate you now,” Hongjoong joked. After a moment, he added, “I missed you a lot, but I promised Yeosang that you would go visit him after he heard you were here, so I think you should head out.”

“What kind of hospitality is this?” Seonghwa asked, pretending to be indignant, but he stood up and made his way to the door, Hongjoong laughing. “You said Yeosang lives down this hallway, right?”

“You’ll know just by looking at his door,” Hongjoong said, “I promise, you’re going to look at that door and say, yeah, that’s Yeosang.”

That’s definitely Yeosang’s door, Seonghwa thought, as he took in the sight. From a distance, the door had seemed plain — like any other door in the apartment complex. He might have even passed by it, if it wasn’t for the fact that Hongjoong stood outside his own door, making sure that Seonghwa would not get lost in the maze-like hallway, laughing when Seonghwa reached Yeosang’s apartment.

Up close, there were several pieces of Gryffindor merchandise near the door, which had been concealed by a charm so that they would only be visible once someone was at his doorstep. There were several other, smaller things hung by his door, but Seonghwa didn’t have time to look through it all, as Yeosang had opened the door. 

“Hyung, you work at Im’s, don’t you?” Yeosang said, bringing out a glass of water for them while Seonghwa took a seat at the kitchen island. “Hongjoong hyung refused to say where he’d seen you, but I knew it was at Im’s once he mentioned seeing those shitty energy drinks that Parker likes.”

“Im’s was the only place that would take me in.” Seonghwa sighed, “I thought they would turn me away, because so many others had turned me away for different reasons, but I guess one of the managers remembered me from when I was twelve, because he said something along the lines of here at Im’s, we take care of our customers.”

“That’s when you first took me to that store, right? I still remember that because I nearly got knocked out by a Bludger that day,” Yeosang laughed at the memory, but Seonghwa was focused on something else that the Keeper had said.

“You don’t like Parker?”

Yeosang simply rolled his eyes. “What gave it away?”

Seonghwa shruuged. “Just a feeling.”

“I don’t like how he almost… looks at hyung like a status symbol,” Yeosang confessed, setting the glass of water meant for Seonghwa in front of him. “Before you think that it’s just me nitpicking him or whatever, Jongho and San also agree with me. Wooyoung kind of does, but he’s still on the fence about it. I get that we’re not kids playing at Hogwarts anymore and now we play internationally — so it makes sense for people to admire Hongjoong hyung — but sometimes it just feels like he only sees Kim Hongjoong, Quidditch extraordinaire, and not Hongjoong, the person.”

“And what does Hongjoong think?”

“He doesn’t see it,” Yeosang said. “In no way am I saying Parker’s being purposely malicious or anything — because I honestly don’t think he is. It’s just… a lot.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i like to think this chapter was decent, oh well
> 
> also yunho gets hit w the cruciatus curse but its only mentioned

Yunho sighed as he waited for Youngjo and Seoho to arrive, pacing in order to calm his nerves. Mingi wasn’t any different, taking occasional sips of the iced coffee Yunho had made for him earlier.

It was somewhat of an open secret amongst the writers of Inspire Korea that Hwanwoong and the others wanted to leave. Yunho and Mingi didn’t blame them. Although Mingi had been constantly sidelined and forced to become the office’s copy boy, it was nothing compared to the comments that Keonhee and Seoho received for coming from halfblood families, and it certainly didn’t compare to the treatment Hwanwoong and Dongju received for being part Veela — part creature. Geonhak and Youngjo were actually treated favorably, since they were purebloods, but they had decided to leave Inspire Korea along with the others, using their blood status to take a stand. They had already established their own publication — a magazine Dongju had half-jokingly called ONEUS, which had eventually stuck — and they were only waiting for the resignation process to go through so that they could officially launch ONEUS.

Although Yunho and Mingi had decided to stay at Inspire Korea, it was clear that they would have to leave soon, as well. In the time after the interview with Yeosang — who would not be cited in the article — Yunho and Mingi had followed through with every assignment they were given. But it was too much.

“You sure they didn’t get lost?” Mingi joked, getting up to wash the cup he had been using after he finished his iced tea. “It wouldn’t be the first time you invited someone over and they got lost.”

“Not all wizards are like you, Mingi,” Yunho teased, remembering how Mingi had borrowed someone’s owl to inform Yunho that he had gotten lost on his way to the latter’s apartment. “I have faith in them. At least Seoho hyung has lived in the muggle world before.”

Before Mingi could retort, a small pop interrupted the quiet that had settled in the apartment.

“Youngjo hyung got us lost in Spain,” Seoho simply said, and both he and Youngjo made themselves at home at Yunho’s insistence. “I was surprised when I received your owl, though — especially when you said that part about how there was no way Inspire Korea would run your story.”

“They won’t,” Mingi said, “because then they’d have to reveal they set Park Seonghwa up so that they could get Hyungsik and Haein into the main Korean Quidditch team, and that they got Haein to romance Hongjoong so that they’d have a lock on Hongjoong’s first scandal.”

Youngjo and Seoho immediately sat down, as Mingi explained what they had pieced together through their interview with Yeosang. 

“We figured it out when Yeosang mentioned that Seonghwa was most likely a muggleborn,” he said, as both Youngjo and Seoho listened intently. “Apparently, he used to take on more ‘Slytherin’ qualities when he was at Hogwarts, to protect himself — like exaggerating a liking for Potions when his favorite Hogwarts class had been Charms—”

“—and that’s what his scandal was,” Youngjo supplied. “Performance-enhancing potions.”

“And no one ever questioned whether it was him that actually brewed those potions,” Yunho continued, picking up where Mingi had left off. “But what no one ever bothered to check was the traces of magic within those potions. A few of the potions he was supposedly found with required some spell work from the maker; if he’d truly brewed those potions, then surely there would’ve been no problem doing the appropriate tests to prove that he’d cast the needed spells.”

“That reminds me of what Geonhak was saying the other day,” Seoho acknowledged, turning towards Youngjo as he spoke. He made sure to keep his voice quiet, taking into account the warnings Yunho had included in the letter that he’d invited them in — how there was a chance they’d possibly be monitored if someone happened to be listening too closely. It was unlikely, given the fact that Yunho lived in a muggle neighborhood and that he’d charmed his home so he could protect it with the most powerful charms he could muster, but Yunho didn’t want to take his chances. “He was half-jokingly complaining about how writing about dating rumors for so long under Inspire Korea had ruined him — that now he was starting to see Park Seonghwa in Haein, as if Haein was trying to woo Kim Hongjoong.”

“Honestly, from what Yeosang said, I don’t think Haein — or Parker, whatever — is trying to woo Hongjoong to be evil,” Mingi admitted. Yunho looked at him, curiously. “If anything, I think it’s Hyungsik trying to kill two birds with one stone. He wants his baby brother to be on the team, so he kicked the player that was taking up that spot; he wants the captaincy, so if the current captain gets into a scandal, the spot is definitely his.”

“And the thing about Haein changing his name to Parker?” Yunho asked.

“It’s kind of just reads to me as a starstruck kid trying to get the attention of the hyung he likes,” Mingi said.

“Dongju’s brother and his friends play on one of the backup squads,” Seoho brought up. “Not that I don’t trust Yeosang — but it could be a good idea to see if Dongmyeong and the others know anything.”

Yunho nodded. “It’s best to cover our bases.”

“Well, we have to leave, but we’ll come back later,” Youngjo promised, and before long the two ONEUS writers were gone.

“Now that that’s done, I’m going to go clean,” Yunho muttered, gesturing towards the mess that had been left by his neighbor’s cat when he’d watched it the previous week.

-

Yunho’s attempt to clean up his apartment before anyone else came over proved worthless, as a disheveled Ju Harin and Jin Yonghoon Apparated into the living room.

“I’ll take care of it, you go clean.” Mingi had long since abandoned any attempt at trying to get Yunho to use cleaning spells; Yunho always claimed that the apartment only ever felt truly clean whenever he cleaned it manually, so Mingi had learned it was best to leave Yunho to his own devices whenever a cleaning urge came over him. Yunho mouthed a quick thank you, and Mingi set up Yunho’s enchanted typewriter so it would take note of whatever the two Quidditch players said, while they made themselves at home.

“Seoho hyung said you wanted to know about Hyungsik and Haein,” Harin said, him and Yonghoon taking a seat. “We don’t really see them because we’re on different teams, but we’d like to help if we can.”

Mingi handed them the scrap of parchment where he had jotted down the main points of their conversations with Yeosang, as well as the earlier exchange with Seoho and Youngjo. “Quite honestly, it would be amazing if you can elaborate on any of this.”

“You’re spot on with the Hyungsik leadership thing,” Yonghoon said, immediately looking up to make eye contact with Mingi while Harin was still reading the list. From its place in the corner, Yunho’s enchanted typewriter diligently transcribed what the three said. “Dongmyeong’s known Haein for a while, and he said Haein is pretty harmless. The one you really have to look out for is Hyungsik, especially now that he has seemingly set his sights on being the team leader that brings South Korea the Quidditch World Cup win.”

“Yeosang didn’t mention that.”

“That’s not really surprising; honestly, like the others said, the one you really need to talk to is Dongmyeong,” Harin included. “Dongmyeong knows a lot of players that play Quidditch in Korea, but don’t necessarily play for the national team. Also, since he’s part Veela, a lot of managers tend to… drop their guard around him.”

“Because of the Veela charm?”

“Because of the Veela charm,” Yonghoon confirmed. “As for Hyungsik and him wanting to be the team captain, it was always said that after our former captain, Yongsun noona, retired, it was going to be either me or Sihyeon that would take her place. Sihyeon coincidentally got injured, so it changed to me or Hyungsik.” 

“Don’t get us wrong, the executives and staff in charge of the team totally knew that Hyungsik was responsible for Sihyeon’s injury. But the issue was never truly investigated, and Sihyeon ended up bowing out of Quidditch,” Harin added, picking up where Yonghoon had left off. “Yongsun noona retired, and hyung became captain for a bit, but he stepped down because Hyungsik jinxed him. Hongjoong’s the first one to become captain recently that hasn’t somehow become bewitched or injured.”

“Do you think that’s why he got Haein to romance Hongjoong, then?” Mingi asked both of them. “Do you think that he’s using Haein to throw people off his trail, since some people would suspect him for possibly injuring Sihyeon and cursing Yonghoon hyung?”

“Dongmyeong told me that Haein’s actually Hyungsik’s stepbrother,” Yonghoon responded. “So, honestly? Whether he succeeds with this stunt or not — I think he’ll throw Haein aside, too.”

;;

Yunho had a good idea of what Jinwoon wanted when the latter had called him into his office a few days later. Both he and Mingi had decided it was best to not discuss their article in progress while at work, especially not when it seemed that Jinwoon was deeply involved in the main issue of the article in question. He’d taken a home remedy of sorts that Mingi had brewed, meant to lessen, or completely eliminated, the effects of Veritaserum — though this was dependent on the strength and amount of the Veritaserum — and even went through the basic steps of Occlumency as he sat down at Jinwoon’s desk.

The last precaution he’d taken was placing a small, enchanted mirror in his pocket under his robes; the mirror was set up so that whoever had the other mirror could see and hear things that were occurring around the first. 

“Let us go somewhere quieter,” Jinwoon simply said, and he’d grabbed Yunho’s hand before the latter had a chance to get away. Judging by Jinwoon’s ability to navigate through the complicated layout of the house, Yunho guessed that Jinwoon had brought him to his house. He let himself get pulled until they had reached a dark room. Yunho fell to the floor as Jinwoon pushed him, hissing slightly as he scraped his palms on the rough flooring. When he looked up, Jinwoon stood there, pointing his wand directly at Yunho. “You’re so pretty, but you and that Song boy can’t ever keep your noses out of what doesn’t concern you. It’s such a shame, really — because I was willing to ignore the fact that your wizarding blood is so diluted you’re practically a mudblood. Maybe I still will, I’ll just take it all out on that Song boy.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Yunho challenged, managing to keep his voice steady by focusing on the gnarly detailing of the wall behind Jinwoon. He wanted — no, needed — to play his cards right, especially since he was currently wandless, as he had left his wand on his desk back in the office of Inspire Korea. “Mingi’s an heir to one of the most powerful pureblood families left in wizarding South Korea. They’d raise hell on earth if you even think of touching a hair on Mingi’s head.”

“But who’s going to vouch for you?” Jinwoon taunted. “You’re just like that Yeo boy that left — chasing after purebloods without realizing that ultimately, those purebloods are just going to marry into pureblood again.”

“Mingi cares.”

“Does he, or does he only talk to you more because you helped him become more than a simple copy machine assistant?” Jinwoon challenged. “Either way, I can’t have you meddling in my business deals any longer. I hope you’ll understand.”

“ You can’t—”

“Crucio.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cant believe it took me 2 months to come up with such a short, shitty update but here we are (apologies)
> 
> on the other hand, thank you so much for your kudos and comments, it means so so much so thank you once again

Seonghwa winced as he poked his head out the door, giving him a view into his living room, to find a heartbroken Kim Hongjoong. 

“Go,” Mingi whispered, kneeling next to a still-unconscious Yunho. It seemed like today was the day where his past returned to play with him; first, Mingi had brought an unconscious Yunho to him to tend to--like he had tended to injured students in the secrecy of the Room of Requirement--and now, Hongjoong was in his apartment, presumably due to the news of Parker’s older brother’s scheme. “I can take care of him if something happens.”

“Are you sure about that?” Seonghwa joked, but he quickly stepped out of the room once Yunho began to stir, taking over Mingi’s attention. He quietly made his way over to the living room, pausing briefly in case Hongjoong didn’t want to see him.

“Of course you would be the one that hides in their own apartment because of someone else.”

“I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t fling a Crucio at me or something,” Seonghwa insisted, but his explanation only made Hongjoong laugh. Before Seonghwa could respond, a tiny ball of feathers--more accurately, a small owlet he had rescued and named Jinah--flew at Hongjoong, chirping excitedly at him. “Jinah!”

“She’s so cute,” Hongjoong said, offering his arm so that the owl could stand on it. “She reminds me of when Aurora was little.”

“Aurora didn’t scratch my face, first thing in the morning,” Seonghwa pointed out, though he grimaced as he thought back to his previous interactions with Hongjoong’s owls. He had shared a small apartment with Hongjoong for a while after their Hogwarts graduation. One of the only things that he had disliked about living with Hongjoong was that he would always wake up to his belongings covered in owl shit. Hongjoong, being the angel that he was, had always apologized on behalf of his owls, and had taken several measures to try and fix the issue. “Is there… anything you want to… talk about?”

“I really have a tendency to fuck myself over.” Hongjoong laughed. “My first serious relationship in awhile… you already know how that turned out. The entirety of South Korea does. I’m kind of starting to believe I may be cursed in dating.” 

“You’re not cursed in dating,” Seonghwa insisted. “Parker’s just stupid, and so were your previous not-relationships from Hogwarts.” He decided to switch the conversation away from the topic at hand, instead pointing towards the small shelf in the corner of the living room. “You remember my muggle board games collection, right? It’s grown.”

Hongjoong’s eyes immediately lit up, and the two spent the rest of the afternoon going through Seonghwa’s abundance of muggle board games. Coming from a wizarding family, Hongjoong had always been amazed at even the simplest aspects of the muggle world, particularly different modes of entertainment. Seonghwa had always found it cute; he had never seen someone so genuinely impressed and excited about games like Monopoly, even the monotone 1,000 piece puzzles some of Seonghwa’s muggle relatives had given him over the years were precious to Hongjoong. 

“You weren’t supposed to pass go.”

“I was totally allowed to pass go.” Seonghwa argued, adjusting his Monopoly money by bill type, “You snooze you lose.”

“But-” Hongjoong rolled his eyes as he landed on one of Seonghwa’s properties, immediately handing over his remaining money so that Seonghwa could take the appropriate rent “just fucking take it.”

“I can’t believe you two would play Monopoly without me.”

Hongjoong and Seonghwa turned towards the voice, greeted by the sight of Yunho poking his head through the door, hair still messy from his nap. Behind him Mingi sighed.

“I told him to keep resting,” Mingi explained, “but after he found out you guys were playing Monopoly, he wouldn’t sit back down.”

“There’s always room for you guys to play!” Hongjoong said, wiping away the board of all their progress as Mingi and Yunho sat down to join them, ignoring the suspiciously squawk-like sound Seonghwa let out as Hongjoong destroyed the evidence of him winning. “Seonghwa will teach you, right?”

“Of course.”

;;; 

It was in the middle of a heated Monopoly match that Hongjoong realized he was fucked.

Mingi had gotten into an argument with Yunho on whether he really had to pay rent for one of the properties Mingi had sold him previously, and Seonghwa only laughed as Yunho argued his side. Occasionally, Seonghwa would interrupt their argument--but only to meddle.

Although Parker might have been his first official relationship during his career, Hongjoong had long since admitted to himself that his first official crush during the same time period had been Seonghwa. The feelings had certainly originated before that point--perhaps somewhere in between playful quips from their supposed “rivalry” back at Hogwarts.

He’d kept the feelings under wraps for years, especially after the scandal. Seonghwa was kind, but even then Hongjoong couldn’t even begin to imagine how his own words must have hurt the elder during that time.There was no saying how much that had changed their dynamic. 

“Are you okay?” Seonghwa’s hand hovered over Hongjoong’s shoulder, as if he was unsure whether reaching out to him was the right thing. Hongjoong rolled his eyes, patting Seonghwa’s head gently.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Hongjoong reached for the Monopoly box and handed it to Mingi and Yunho, who had decided to pick out a different game once it had become obvious that no one was interested in playing anymore. The two packed up all the pieces and cards in the box, immediately setting it aside as they perused the rest of Seonghwa’s muggle board game collection. Hongjoong pulled a familiar box out instead, holding it out to Seonghwa. “Would you like to play Jenga, or is the great Park Seonghwa too good to play Jenga with me?”

“I’ll always play Jenga with you, fool.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol im back from the dead
> 
> thank you for all the kudos and comments, thank you for sticking with me despite the inconsistent updates lol
> 
> (find me on cc: cupidoneus)

Hongjoong took a deep breath as he walked in behind Seonghwa, who held up his wand defensively. The coach had asked for him to please bring out Parker and his brother—as it turned out, Yunho’s attacker had squealed and told everything, which now meant the investigation was focused on the Quidditch players. Hongjoong had rolled his eyes when the coach insisted that Hongjoong be the one to bring them out, citing the authority that came with his captaincy as a reason. 

He didn’t know what to expect—hell, he hadn’t truly paid attention to Parker or his brother before this, they’d simply passed under his radar—so he had decided to ask Seonghwa to accompany him in bringing them out. Hongjoong would admit this wasn’t his best idea; even after the news of Seonghwa’s scandal had initially broken, it took a while before many of the players dared to even speak of him, much less say his name. Given the fact that Hyungsik had seemingly harbored resentment towards Seonghwa since before, Hongjoong made sure to keep his wand in his front row pocket for once—instead of shoving it wherever his arm first reached, like he usually did—so that he would be able to reach it quickly if needed, but even that attempt proved futile.

“You!” Hyungsik exclaimed, anger overtaking his features quickly as Seonghwa stepped into the room first. Hyungsik immediately reached for his wand, Parker hesitantly doing the same in a mirrored image of his brother. Before Hongjoong could do anything—his wand had fallen in the hallway, so he’d been forced to run back for it—both Hyungsik and Parker shot curses at Seonghwa. Hyungsik aimed to maim, or even kill, as he made his way dangerously close to using Unforgivables, while Parker noticeably used weaker spells—so that, if they were to land, they wouldn’t injure Seonghwa too much. Hongjoong ran back to where Seonghwa stood, wanting to help out in whatever way he could, but Seonghwa had managed to expertly counter or avoid Hyungsik’s attacks.

Hongjoong wasn’t surprised. He still remembered the early days, before Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and the others had gotten recruited by major Quidditch teams. They had begun by playing for small, local Quidditch teams, which had led them to split up temporarily, as they had mostly gotten signed by their respective hometowns; though there had been many that supported their rise in the Korean Quidditch league, there had also been a significant group that proclaimed them to be traitors for leaving their hometown teams for the better ranked teams they had received offers from. Seonghwa had defended him several times from the attack attempts that had ensued, and Hongjoong would forever be grateful.

It didn’t take long for the officers from the Ministry of Magic to arrive, Hongjoong had managed to subdue Parker, so that he eventually surrendered by his own will. Restraining Hyungsik had been much harder, as the latter refused to back down. While Seonghwa had kept to using mostly harmless spells, Hyungsik had gotten to the point where he was shooting out Unforgivable Curses at every opportunity, to the point it was a matter of good luck that Seonghwa had managed to evade his Killing Curses—restraining him with a well-aimed Full Body-Bind Curse.  
“I hope ruining my life was fucking worth it.” Seonghwa looked down at Hyungsik’s body—rigid, similar to a plank after his legs and arms had snapped to his sides. “And to think I considered you a friend. Was it fun for you to brew those fucking potions, knowing that once you were done, you would be in the perfect position to take something I worked towards for years?”

If Seonghwa wanted to say anything else, he didn’t get the chance to. Ministry officials carried the petrified Quidditch player away, escorting Parker away as well. 

Parker met Hongjoong’s eyes for a moment, as the immaculately dressed men led him out, but Hongjoong immediately looked away.

He no longer knew who Parker—Haein, whatever—was.

;;;

“I thought I was supposed to be the wronged one,” Seonghwa joked, and although he did his best to keep his tone light and playful, he couldn’t shake off the nerves from having had to testify for the investigation. He had given the officials his permission to administer Veritaserum and interrogate him—and while he knew that he was innocent, that he had not brewed those potions, his heart had pounded in his ears as he answered their questions. Eventually, the officials had allowed him to leave—confirming his innocence, as well as having provided detail enough to consider that perhaps Hyungsik had been behind the supposed quitting of other players. “Yet here you are, looking like the Ministry of Magic just sent you to Azkaban for life.”

Hongjoong grimaced, taking a break from pacing around the room as he sat down.“I just don’t… like it here.” 

“We’ll be out of here soon, don’t worry,” he assured, taking one of Hongjoong’s hands into his and squeezing it to reassure him. It wasn’t until another hour that they were let out, technicalities had to be sorted out, but eventually, the grumpy interviewer had finally given them permission to leave.

-

“And what makes you think I can help you?” Sihyeon asked. 

Given the circumstances, Hongjoong had almost expected Sihyeon to kick them out; Hongjoong was certainly not supposed to be in their little shop office—though that was its own issue, one that he would address with the team staff afterwards—and Seonghwa had previously mentioned how strict the shop owner was when it came to people entering the shop office above the main area. 

“Your notebook—the league notes,” Seonghwa pointed out. Sihyeon’s demeanor noticeably changed, interest piqued. “That’s… That’s advanced magic, for sure. We can explain everything if you want, answer any questions you have, but we wanted to know if you could teach us that? Or at least, do it for us?”

“Alright,” Sihyeon relented. “I don’t really have any questions right now, but you have to promise me you won’t withhold important information—no holding back information to make me do your dirty shit.”

“Alright.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look whos alive haha
> 
> (cant promise ill be more active but i finally manage to get myself out of the rut i had for this fic,,, temporarily, at least)

“Am I even allowed on here?” Seonghwa asked, following as Hongjoong led him to the pitch the Korean team frequented. “I feel like… I'm going to get struck by someone’s Cruciatus for even stepping onto the premises.”

“It'll all be alright,” Hongjoong promised. The surface of Hongjoong’s broom shone in the daylight, showing off all the customizations Hongjoong had made to its surface—Hongjoong described the markings as “some more regrettable than others”—and Seonghwa thought back to when Hongjoong had initially blown up on the Quidditch scene, when his boss had initially contemplated the idea of selling some toy brooms modeled after Hongjoong’s customized broom. “What are they gonna do—kick me off the team for talking to you? All things considered, I think they’re  _ very _ grateful I haven't gone off the rails and given them another scandal to worry about.”

“They'd cry if you did,” Seonghwa responded. Yeosang and Jongho often invited him over to watch their practices, while San and Wooyoung had taken to asking him about the different advantages for certain brands whenever they browsed for new equipment. Seonghwa had come across some of the staff members through these visits; the staff members treated him well enough, but interns were kind to him, always making sure that he felt at home. “Junyoung would honestly quit on the spot, probably.”

Hongjoong grinned. “Alright, maybe I won't go off the rails. Don’t want to leave Junyoung jobless.”

“And you just know that if Junyoung left, then Lee Seungwoo would, too,” Seonghwa added, “emphasis on  _ Lee _ —because I'm pretty sure that the other Seungwoo just comes in and minds his own business.”

“Now I feel bad because I forgot other Seungwoo’s surname. Dammit, Park,” Hongjoong jokingly grumbled, smacking his arm lightly. Once they confirmed that they were alone—and that no one was there to aim a Cruciatus Curse at Seonghwa—the two made their way over to the middle of the pitch, as they had always done when they were back at Hogwarts. Placed neatly on the exact center of the pitch was another broom, not unlike the brooms Seonghwa used to use for Quidditch. “Would you look at that—a new broom! Who would've thought?”

“Hongjoong…” Seonghwa trailed off. Looking at the Quidditch captain, Seonghwa wanted to tell him that Quidditch was something he’d left in his past, only to be accessed in his memories, via pensieve. He wanted to turn away at the sudden surge of emotions he was experiencing; but his curiosity won over his uncertainty, leading him to hold his hand over the broom Hongjoong had gotten him—he knew it was Hongjoong, and he would have known so even without looking at Hongjoong’s poorly hidden excitement. “U-Up?”

Despite his uncertainty, the broom flew right into his hand. 

“I know it’s been awhile since you've ridden a broom—” Hongjoong explained, looking apologetic, but before he could finish, Seonghwa was already heading towards the sky.

**—**

“I’ve created a monster,” Hongjoong announced as he entered the room with Seonghwa in tow. The other team members turned around, worried until they noticed the elder. It was their weekend team ritual to gather and play a few games together so that they could talk about their week—and Seonghwa had quickly managed to nudge himself right in fairly quickly. “Merlin, I didn’t know a human could travel that fast on a broom. I told him it was getting late, and this fool made me race him.”

“You literally told me that you thought my  _ hag bones would disintegrate _ if I went anything faster than, like, kid speed,” Seonghwa argued, settling down beside Hongjoong and watching the card game Yeosang and Jongho had in progress. “So I think proving you wrong was perfectly reasonable.”

“Alright, lovebirds,” Yeosang peered at them before looking over at the others, “who’s interested in a game of Quidditch once Yunho and Mingi get here?” Yeosang asked, beginning to pick up the cards once Jongho had won. Rather than answer, the others began to murmur amongst themselves and arrange their own groups.

“This isn't Quidditch,” Jongho complained as the Wooyoung, Yeosang, and San planned to ask Mingi and Yunho to join their team, while it was clear that Seonghwa and Hongjoong would play together as well—leaving him to be his own team. “Dammit, I guess I’ll send Dongju a Patronus message.”

**;;;**

“Hyung, have you considered Quidditch again?”

Seonghwa stopped in his tracks. He knew that Sihyeon was considering some sort of sports-adjacent career, just like so many of his coworkers had before him. He couldn't name any of his previous co-workers that had stayed at the shop long term; it seemed like an unspoken agreement among everyone that the shop was some sort of lifeboat until they could find something better - even the owner understood. Seonghwa had never really spoken to his boss, but he knew that the older man appreciated each and every worker that came and went; he had a small photo frame in his office that played a small compilation of those that had gone onto greater things, the letters from those that still reached out plastered on the wall.

“I… haven't thought about it, honestly,” he admitted. As the others gathered around him, he realized that he’d never thought about his time after the shop; whenever he thought about the future, he’d always pictured himself in the relatively near future - never thinking of possibilities outside the shop. Hell, he’d always assumed that he would be obliterated instantly if he so much as thought about a Quidditch pitch after being blacklisted based on the numerous reports that had come out after his mistake; but then he’d consulted with some of the upper management at Hongjoong’s insistence, and it turned out no such blacklist had ever been instated. 

“Well, we’ve kind hemorrhaged players recently,” Yeosang joked, “and hey, maybe Hongjoong will hand over his captain ti—”

Hongjoong turned around, using his best impression of the team’s previous leader, known widely for his curt demeanor. “Absolutely not,” he said, prompting laughter. “I love him, but  _ absolutely not. _ ”


End file.
